Short Biography

Silvio Dalla Torre

Silvio Dalla Torre comes from a German-
Italian family and was born in southern
German Kempten in the Allgäu. After studying
music in Augsburg, Munich and Vienna, he
worked for 20 years as a principal bassist for opera and symphony orchestras in Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium. He taught as a visiting instructor at the Musikhochschule in Detmold, and has founded and performed with several chamber music ensembles.

In 2002 Dalla Torre ended his orchestra career in favor of a professorship in double bass and chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Rostock. Since then he has been carrying out research on historical and modern double bass performance techniques, and worked out a method - based on cello technique - which has since been the subject of much discussion, that opens up previously unattainable possibilities for playing the double bass.

Dalla Torre has given master classes in Germany and other European countries,
in the US, Canada, and China. He works internationally as a chamber musician and soloist both with the double bass and the bassetto - a historical bass violin in fifth tuning. Dalla Torre played a major role in researching and reconstructing it and in 2005 premiered the world’s first CD featuring the instrument.

In 2004 Silvio Dalla Torre founded the music publishing house sidatoverlag.
He has often been a juror in international competitions and also works as a journalist producing specialist articles on many topics concerned with the
double bass.

In 2007 Silvio Dalla Torre became musical director of the"International Double Bass Week" at Kloster Michaelstein. At the beginning of 2008 the event was held under its new name "Double Bass Kaleidoscope Michaelstein" with more than 50 double bassists on hand from all over the world.